‘This guy has my MacBook’: Spy software points police to thief

Clever ad campaign or clever sleuthing? An Oakland man says he helped police find the guy who allegedly stole his Apple MacBook by using security software that secretly takes photos when a computer is stolen.

The saga quickly gained momentum on Tumblr, where the victim posted photos of the alleged thief. The page eventually piqued the interest of Oakland police, he wrote. On Tuesday, he said, the cops helped victim Joshua Kaufman track down the suspected laptop thief.

On March 21, 2011, my MacBook was stolen from my apartment in Oakland, CA. I reported the crime to the police and even told them where it was, but they couldn’t help me due to lack of resources. Meanwhile, I’m using the awesome app, Hidden, to capture these photos of this guy who has my MacBook.

Update: (May 31, 8:37 PM PST) ARRESTED! An Oakland police officer just called me to let me know that they arrested the guy in my photos! BOOYA! The police used my evidence (email which pointed to a cab service) that he was a driver and tricked him into picking them up. Nice work OPD!

Now, it’s possible that this is all a publicity stunt for the Hidden software. What do you think?